Dems blast ‘unethical’ hire of de Blasio aide’s gal pal

By Michael Gartland
August 13, 2015 | 11:58pm

Democrats rip Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to hire Stephanie Yazgi (left), the girlfriend of an aide.Photo: Facebook (left), Natan Dvir

Fellow Democrats yesterday slammed Mayor de Blasio’s decision to create a $150,000 job to promote his immigration agenda nationwide — a post handed to Stephanie Yazgi, his aide’s girlfriend.

“It does raise questions when you don’t advertise the position and you’re hiring the partner or relative of someone in your administration,” state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) said of Yazgi, 38, becoming the national campaign director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“It has the appearance of impropriety.”

Yazgi, the longtime girlfriend of Emma Wolfe, 35, one of the mayor’s most trusted aides, started the job in early May.
The Conflicts of Interest Board approved her hiring.

Avella suggested the ethics panel reconvene.

“I think the Conflicts of Interest Board should take another look at it just to make sure,” he said. “Why not go that extra mile?”

Some City Council members were outraged by the “unethical” hire, which was supposed to be funded by a private grant until delays in securing the money led City Hall to put Yazgi on the government payroll.
‘IT HAS THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY’
- State Sen. Tony Avella

“They were trying to make up a job for her,” said a Democratic council member, who asked not to be identified. “It seems that it wasn’t given proper oversight.”

Another Democratic legislator said, “I’m appalled.”

But the mayor on Thursday defended the newly created job as necessary to protect the city’s 500,000 undocumented immigrants.

“When there was a matter of federal legislation that was going to have profound impact on New York City, we thought it was very important to have people focused on it,” de Blasio said, without addressing Yazgi’s relationship to Wolfe.

But the executive order signed by President Obama granting more rights to undocumented immigrants is tied up in court, and the mayor himself has conceded Congress might not take up immigration reform before 2017.



De Blasio aide and Stephanie Yazgi’s girlfriend, Emma Wolfe
Photo: Rob Bennett for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio


Republican Assemblyman Joe Borelli of Staten Island called the situation “alarming.”“There seem to be more questions than answers about this particular hire,” he said.

Dick Dadey of watchdog group Citizens Union called on the mayor to provide a full explanation.

“Regardless of one’s qualifications, whenever a relation of a senior mayoral aide is hired, it should be the result of a transparent and competitive process,” he said.

“And when the switch is made to use public funds to employ a well-connected person, the bar for hiring becomes even higher.”

City Hall officials said they are still pursuing private funds to pay Yazgi’s salary and have secured money to support the coalition she is working with, Cities for Action on Immigration.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain & Danika Fears

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